"I'm thankful to be alive at the age of 58. I have my health and strength. Don't receive no benefits, but I go around and pick up scraps to sell. That's how I survive. I don't have to ask nobody for money.

"My mother, father, family, and other people give me a lot of advice in my lifetime. A lot of it stuck with me, but I don't say I done it. This one I kept though, this one I always remember. They told me, 'Don't give up. Don't quit. You can make it.'"